P UCL BULLETIN

Vol. XXXIII, No. 5 Inside :

EDITORIAL: No Police Personnel as Member in Human Rights Commissions - Rajindar Sachar (1) ARTICLES, DOCUMENTS : REPORTS &

ISSN-0970-8693

MAY 2013

Rs. 10

No Police Personnel as Member in Human Rights Commissions

Rajindar Sachar
One of the tragedies of modern politics is that political persons have no embarrassment in speaking in one way and acting in other. Dr. Lohia, Socialist leader always maintained that if there is to be people's politics that can only happen when there is total approximation between what politicians say and how they act. In this he was only echoing Gandhiji's insistence that politics and morality must go together. That there is cynical flouting of these norms in present day politics is a daily occurrence. The latest instance is of BJP leaders Arun Jaitly and Sushma Swaraj objecting to the proposed appointment of Mr. S.C. Sinha, Chief of National Investigation Agency to be a member of the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRCI) on the ground that by it the ruling regime is setting a dangerous precedent by appointing heads of country's premier investigating agencies to the posts after their retirements because it would have negative impact on the neutrality of such agencies as to remain in the good books of the Government. The point is well taken and I totally agree. But I would like to refresh the BJP's memory at the precedent of the BJP's Central Government in 2003. The BJP forgot this moral stand when it appointed Sharma, who had retired as the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in December 2003 to the NHRC. Of course it sought and obtained the consent of Sonia Gandhi, the then leader of the opposition in the House of People and S. Manmohan Singh, the leader of opposition in the Council of States. The People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) (founded by Jayaprakash Narayan in the dark days of the Emergency in 1976) challenged the appointment of Sharma in the Supreme Court. The PUCL made it clear that it raised no personal objection to Sharma, nor was it talking of his competency or impartiality as an individual. Its objection was on the basis of a fundamental issue that none from the police or security forces is eligible (or in any case on the touchstone of confidence building measure in the working of the NHRCI) should be appointed to a body which was meant to give relief to the people from the peculiar working of the police and the security forces. The PUCL drew to its aid the strong concern expressed by the Supreme Court "at the growing incidence of torture and deaths in police custody". It relied especially on Paris Principles endorsed by the UN General Assembly wherein criteria for composition for National Human Rights institutions were adopted, e.g., autonomy from the government. Especially in regard to the composition of the Human Right Commission, the principles

33rd JP Memorial Lecture : New Social Movements, New Perspectives - Nivedita Menon (2); Asian Centre for Human Rights Report (11); Governors in the dock (16). PRESS STATEMENTS, LETTERS AND NEWS : Press Release: Chaining of Santosh Shahani in West Bengal (8); PUCL Delhi statement on Bhullar Judgment (9); NAPM Statements: (1) POSCO Violence (10); (2) Police Complicity in murder of an anticorruption crusader (13); Appeal from Jail: Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, Manesar (14); Coimbatore Press Release (17); W.Bank's sham 'Consultation' to Review Its Environmental & Social Safeguards Shut Down (18).
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specifically ruled out government departments' representatives from the membership of the Commission. But such are the dual standards that when the matter came up for hearing the BJP government threw its full weight justifying the appointment. The matter initially came up before a two Judge Bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal J. (as he then was) who held as follows: "The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is a highpowered statutory body to act as an instrument for the protection and promotion of human rights. The credibility of such an institution depends upon a high degree of public confidence. It cannot be overlooked that notwithstanding the exemplary role of the police and security forces, there have been many instances of excesses by the members of the forces leading to public unrest and deteriorating public faith. The issue is not whether all are fully true or not, but is what exists in the public mind and whether there is some justification therefore. After all, it cannot be denied that predisposition or subtle prejudice or unconscious prejudice or what is called "sanskar" are inarticulate major premises in the decisionmaking process. Thus construing Section 3(2)(d) of the Act, a police officer would be ineligible to be appointed as a member of the NHRC."
33rd JP Memorial Lecture*:

The other Justice dissented. The matter was then heard by a 3 Judge Bench who took a contrary view and held that appointment of a police officer to the NHRC was legal and permissible though it conceded that it cannot take any exception with regard to the remarks made in many of the Supreme Court cases that the judicial and public perception of the police force is considered to be the biggest violators of human rights. The unfortunate effect of this judgment has been that since then almost every State Human Rights Commission (HRC) has at least one, sometimes two members from State Police force as members. Imagine the irony and the discomfort of the Human Right activists who have been fighting against the police excesses for a long time to find that the remedy provided by law is from the very machinery of the police personnel now sitting in the NHRC or the State HRCs. In this matter both the Congress and the BJP ruled States have a commonly shared preference for the police personnel and are allergic to any improvement in the working of the NHRC or the State HRCs. This is evident from the fact that the recommendations for improvement in the NHRC made by a Committee headed by the former Chief Justice Ahmadi as far as 15 years back have remained in cold storage under both the Congress and the BJP Governments. As I said it is not the actual prejudice

or the unfairness by the police member, but the perception of it. I therefore feel that in spite of the court having held that there is no disqualification of a police or security officer from being appointed as a member, both the Congress and the BJP should agree to debar police and security personnel form the membership of the NHRC and State HRCs. In this connection let me quote the precedent. Gandhiji had selected a person to be the member of the Congress Working Committee. But before he could be appointed information was sent to Gandhiji that in a suit filed against that gentleman for recovery of a loan taken by him, he had replied, (of course drafted by his clever Advocate) that he had not taken any loan, hence nothing was payable and in the alternative even if he had taken, he was not to pay back because it was now barred by limitation," Gandhiji when he read it, tersely remarked, "If no loan has been taken, then he is right in denying it. But if he has taken it but is refusing to pay because of limitation, then such a person cannot be a member of my Working Committee. Here was a meaningful distinction between what may be legally right can be morally wrong. This is the justification for excluding the police and security force personnel from the membership of the NHRC and the State HRCs. Dated: 09/04/2013 u

New Social Movements, New Perspectives

Nivedita Menon
We stand at an electrifying and exciting moment of history, when new forces are coming into view through a range of movements, shaking the foundations of political power. They do not seek to capture political power but rather, to make it accountable and answerable to the people. The massive upsurges against corruption and against the Delhi gang-rape, whose reverberations were heard in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Nepal, tie
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up with a global moment which has been marked by similar unrest in different parts of the world the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the youth movement in Bangladesh against the Islamic rightwing and for a return to the secular ideals of the 1971 liberation struggle. But there are dots that connect these current rounds of movements to a longer history of non-party activism in India, which I want to trace in my presentation, before returning to the

present and the difficult questions we face about democracy today. In the long history of peoples movements in India, we have seen them take different forms. Im referring of course, to non-party movements, among the first of which is the JP movement itself, whose ultimate demise, as is widely accepted now, can be traced to its takeover by political parties. Today I will try to map the forms that
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peoples movements have taken since the 1980s, and it should be clear that the focus will be on what we perceive as new movements. Thus, I will not refer to the long struggles against the Indian state in Kashmir and the North East because a discussion of those requires another lecture altogether that will question the very legitimacy of the claim of India to be a Nation. A new kind of social and political action emerged in the 1980s, that we might call citizens initiatives. These non-funded and non-party forums came into being out of a sense of the inefficacy of mainstream political parties and their lack of concern regarding vital issues of democracy, freedom and civil rights. Citizens initiatives have been more involved in a watchdog kind of activity and are not generally characterized by mass support. While some are small, self-sufficient groups of long standing, others are broad coalitions formed around specific issues, that bring together parties and trade unions of the far left, Gandhian, Dalit and feminist groups, some of which may be funded NGOs, as well as non-affiliated individuals. The distinguishing feature of such coalitions is that all the constituents are subject to the common minimum programme set collectively by the forum, and separate party/ organizational agenda are not meant to influence the activity of the forum. The tension that this sets up between differing imperatives is usually also the reason for the short-lived nature of such forums, which tend to dissipate after a period of intense and often very effective interventions. Among the first citizens initiatives that came into existence were around civil liberties and democratic rights. Acquiring particular salience in the immediate aftermath of the Emergency, a number of such organizations came into being throughout the country. For instance, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR) set up during the Emergency later split into the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), with a more leftist perspective on rights including economic rights, while the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) decided to focus on civil

liberties more narrowly. There was a string of such formations in the country. In many states like Andhra Pradesh (the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee APCLC) and West Bengal (Association for the Protection of Democratic Right APDR), the main initiative for the formation of such civil liberties and democratic rights organizations came from activists linked to the far Left groups. We distinguish such forums from what are called human rights organizations, many of which are funded organizations that work in tandem with internationally evolving agendas. The latter we would place under the rubric of NGOs. Such groups have continued to play an active role in the years since, painstakingly documenting and exposing cases of civil liberties and democratic rights violations. In recent years they have also been actively campaigning against capital punishment. While the initial impulse for their formation was the violation by the state of citizens rights to freedom of expression, they have over the last two and a half decades expanded their activities to address violations of freedoms by non-state actors in the context of caste, gender and sectarian/ communal violence. Some of them have also taken up questions of the worst cases of exploitation of labour, which effectively nullify rights and liberties sanctioned by the Constitution to all citizens. A recent significant battle fought by one such citizens group - Committee for Fair Trial for SAR Geelani demonstrates how effective such interventions can be. Syed Abdul Rehman Geelani, a lecturer of Arabic in a Delhi college, was one of the prime accused in the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. Following as it did on 9/11, the incident got inserted into the stridently nationalist discourse that drew nourishment from both the Hindu-right dominated NDA government and the rhetoric of George Bushs war on terrorism. A group of teachers and students of Delhi University kept up a consistent struggle to ensure a fair trial for SAR Geelani in the bleak days of 2002, when one of the worst statesponsored carnages of post-

Independence Indian history was in progress in Gujarat, and Geelani was not only sentenced to death by a POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act) court but also subjected to a blatant media trial pronouncing him guilty even before the court verdict. Eventually a national level Committee was formed, drawing in respected academics like Rajni Kothari and writer Arundhati Roy, while lawyers like Nandita Haksar and others undertook to fight the case on Geelanis behalf. Their patient and unrelenting work was successful in exposing what turned out to be a blatant frame-up. Geelani was acquitted and released. The Geelani case revealed the extent to which democracy can be subverted by the discourse on national security. However, it also demonstrated that spaces for democratic intervention are not entirely closed off. Of course, this was only a partial victory and the December 13th attack on parliament has a darker story behind it which we cannot go into now, the latest episode of which was the unjust execution of Afzal Guru for a crime the Supreme Court conceded he did not commit. Another set of citizens initiatives that came since 1984 and the massacre of Sikhs were several anticommunal groups in different parts of the country. One of the earliest of these was a forum called the Nagarik Ekta Manch, formed in 1984 itself. This was an initiative where people from different backgrounds and vocations came together to work in the relief camps collecting and distributing relief materials, helping people file claims and so on. At about the same time, another group, the Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan (SVA) was formed in Delhi, focusing primarily on public campaigns, attempting simultaneously to find a different language in which to conduct such campaigns. A wide debate was sparked in secular circles by one of the slogans evolved by the SVA to counter the Hindu right-wing campaign on Ramjanmabhoomi, discussed in Chapter 2. This slogan, in a radical departure from secular strategy, appealed to the religious Hindu kankan mein vyaape hain Ram/Mat

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bhadkao danga leke unka naam (Ram is in every atom / let not His name be used to incite violence). These could be said to have been precursors to a series of new initiatives in different towns and cities of India that came into being in the 1990s, especially in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the communal violence that followed. Perhaps the most significant part of the citizens actions of the 1990s was that they took up the struggle that was all but abandoned by political parties whether ruling or opposition, Right or Left. Through this period groups have worked throughout India, engaging in a range of activities street demonstrations and sit-ins to engage the public in debate and discussion, designing and implementing educational programmes, monitoring the media, pursuing cases in court, providing legal and other assistance to the victims of communal violence and making every effort to see that the guilty officials and political leaders would not escape punishment. Again, in the aftermath of the Gujarat carnage of 2002, during the long months of continued violence, innumerable individuals and newly formed groups from all over India went to Gujarat, helping in running relief camps, coordinating collections and distribution of relief materials, running schools for children of the victims and of course, providing the legal support to fight the cases. These efforts might well comprise one of the most glorious chapters of citizens interventions in postindependence India. Urbanism could be said to be one of the fledgling movements in contemporary India. Prior to the 1990s issues of the urban poor, (pavement dwellers, hawkers and vendors, rickshaw pullers) were raised by Left political parties, individuals and groups in Mumbai and Kolkata, largely as questions of poverty and the states responsibility to the poor. The old Nehruvian state was also much more responsive to this call of responsibility. It was in the 1990s, with Indias rapid global integration, that urban space really began to emerge as an arena of struggle. Alongside the contests over space arose newer concerns regarding
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urban congestion, pollution and consequent concerns about health. The states response prodded by a section of environmentalists and the judiciary was to revive the old modernist fantasy of the ordered and zoned city. It was around these issues that struggles started seriously erupting in the late 1990s. In Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore, citizens initiatives brought together questions of environment and workers rights and linked them up with the larger question of urban planning. Some groups conducted mass campaigns through their constituent political groupings, but the most significant impact they had was in making urban planning a matter of public debate, drawing architects and planners with alternative visions into the debate. The question of a public transport system, road planning and such other questions came into the ambit of the debate for the first time. In some cities alternative data was generated on the availability and consumption of water, electricity and other amenities in settlements of the labouring poor as well as the affluent. Today as Arvind Kejriwal begins his civil disobedience campaign on the inflated costs of water and electricity, we can see the historical links to earlier forms of activism. Since the late 1980s, non-party movements and citizens initiatives have grown and functioned in a complicated relationship with NGOs. The apprehension of being driven by funder agendas, becoming depoliticized and being co-opted by funding has kept most movements and citizens initiatives consciously non-funded. At the same time many NGOs often provide movements with vital support in terms of infrastructure, campaigns and educational materials. Thus, while the peoples movements fight their battles in faraway rural or forest areas, with little access to the media, it is these NGOs that set up and house the various metropolitan support groups whose task it is to approach friendly and influential people in the media, bureaucracy and academia to advocate the cause of the movement concerned. Such NGOs have often also provided critical research inputs on technical details, environmental impact and other information required

to conduct a credible campaign. A striking example of such a symbiosis is the Narmada Bachao Andolan. These citizens initiatives were rarely mass movements, but in the first decades on the 21st century we have begun to see mass movements of this new, coalitional kind, arising around the issue of land acquisition. Such movements have brought into crisis the hitherto unquestioned assumption that industrialization and economic development of a particular kind are natural stages in human history. This assumption is shared across the political spectrum from Right to Left and so these movements come into sharp contradiction with an Old Left framework that has still not understood the deep ecological crisis our planet faces and the need to rethink entirely the idea of endless growth, which is in fact impossible. Increasingly, movements against land acquisition are coming together with the movement against nuclear energy, from Jaitapur to Kudankulam. In these mass movements we see the new form of coming together of political energies. That is, around a single issue, a range of forces come together, from religious forces like the Jamat in Singur and Nandigram and the Church in Kudankulam, to the familiar spectrum of individuals and groups Gandhians, Dalit groups, NGOs, left groups and sometimes left parties and so on. The antinuclear energy movements of course, go back to the era of citizens initiatives when groups like Anumukti, Network to Oust Nuclear Energy (NONE) and Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (COSNUP) were set up. Such citizens initiatives were undertaken to highlight issues such as the dangers of radiation to communities located in uranium mining sites, the undemocratic and opaque nature of functioning of Indias nuclear establishment, and as always, the injustice of displacing populations from their homes and occupations in order to set up nuclear energy plants. More importantly, these groups developed a critique of nuclear energy as such, asserting, along with a growing chorus of voices globally, that it was neither clean nor safe nor cheap.
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While this work did not have a mass movement dimension until now, we see the coming together of these older initiatives with the mass movements in Kudankulam and Jaitapur. Again, the Old Left is completely out of tune with these new developments, as in its imaginative horizon, nuclear energy is central to a strong nation state. For example, the proposal to build a giant nuclear power station in Haripur in West Bengal is a central government project, but is fully supported by the Left Front. The ecological and social consequences of building a nuclear plant in the densely populated Gangetic delta region are fearsome to contemplate, and the CPI (M)s enthusiastic support for it is deeply troubling. Coming now to the womens movement, it has functioned more or less in the form of citizens initiatives of the kind I have described, with occasional mass mobilization by political parties. In the 1980s, the autonomous womens movement emerged from the patriarchy and control of left-wing political parties. The first national-level autonomous womens conferences were thus attended by non-funded, non-party, self-defined feminist groups. Over the 1990s, very few of these survived as non-funded organizations, and the seventh conference in 2006, held in Kolkata, referred to above, was almost entirely attended by funded NGOs. It is also important to note that many non governmental organizations receive funding from the government for specific projects. Thus, the only groups that were finally excluded were non-funded left wing and radical womens organizations, which seemed to many feminists to be a strange paradox. Increasingly however, in the last few years, coalitions around issues such as sexual violence and the rights of LGBT people, include political parties of the Left. Feminists also perceive the close link between movements around livelihood and ecological sustainability, and the womens movement - Nalini Nayak, who works with fisher-peoples movements on these issues, terms ecological movements the resource base of our feminism. And so we arrive at the end of the
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first decade of the 21st century, a decade in which we see two kinds of new political action. One unprecedented urban mass movements in the city of Delhi and in other cities and towns, around two issues corruption and sexual violence. Two social media driven mobilizations by young upper class women around the issue of womens rights to public space. Both these kinds of mobilizations, quite opposite in character to each other, have proved difficult for older Left and womens movement perspectives to come to terms with, for they follow none of the older patterns of mobilizing, there is no comprehensive programme of action, only one narrow slogan, and the mass character necessarily means there can be no broader agreement around large political issues. Let me start with the second phenomenon I mentioned. Two campaigns have caught media attention. One, the Pink Chaddi campaign. In 2009, men of a hitherto little known Hindu right-wing organization called Sri Ram Sene, physically attacked young women in pubs in the city of Mangalore. These attacks, supposedly an attempt to protect Indian culture from defilement by western values, were met with protests and solidarity campaigns all over the country, but the most imaginative one came to be called the Pink Chaddi campaign. A cheeky Facebook group was launched by Delhi journalist Nisha Susan, with the name of Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women, which called upon women to send pink chaddis (underwear) to the leader of the Ram Sene, Pramod Muthalik, as a gift on Valentines Day, in a nonviolent gesture of ridicule and protest. Over 2000 chaddis were in fact delivered to the Ram Sene office, and the organization was a butt of ridicule all over the world. It is striking that the campaign used the word chaddi rather than panty, simultaneously desexualizing the piece of clothing, ungendering it ( chaddi refers to underwear in general, not just to womens panties), and playing on the pejorative slang for Hindu rightwingers, after the uniform of their parent organization, the RSS, whose members wear khaki shorts. At one

level an undoubtedly successful campaign, it faced criticism from conservative opinion for obvious reasons, and also from the left of the political spectrum. The latter chastised the campaign for elitism (after all, only westernized women in cities go to pubs) and for diverting attention to such a trivial issue when for most women in India, their very survival is at stake. Is going to pubs what feminism is about, was the question such critics raised. Of course not. And nor did the Consortium claim it was anything as large as feminism itself. It was a specific campaign in response to a specific attack, and as Nisha Susan put it, for many of those who signed up, neither Valentines Day nor pubgoing meant anything. What we agreed on is the need to end violence in the name of somebodys idea of Indian culture (2009). The campaign brazenly owned up to the identities the Hindu right-wing attributed to women in pubs loose and forward and made them badges of pride. And it clearly touched a chord across the country, for most people understood it as defiance towards the Hindu rights moral policing in general, not merely about womens right to drink in pubs. The other instance was the organizing of Slut Walks in Delhi and Bhopal. Slut Walks, both in European and American cities as well as in some Indian ones, must be understood as a critique of the victim blaming culture that surrounds rape. The original Slut Walk was a reaction to a Canadian police officers remark that if women dress like sluts, they must expect to be raped. However, the overwhelmingly positive responses world-wide to Slut Walks, reveal that blaming the victim is not an attitude restricted to the West. In India, within the feminist camp, there were misgivings expressed that the English word slut has no resonance at all here. In response, the organizers of the march added a Hindi phrase explaining the name, so that it became Slut Walk arthaat Besharmi Morcha, drawing on the Hindi word besharam meaning without shame or shameless, often used for women who refuse to live by patriarchal rules. What was interesting about Slut Walks in India
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(held in Bhopal and Delhi in July 2011), was that they were not organized by the established womens movement organizations and well-known feminist faces, but by much younger women new to political organizing, who were expressing, however, an old and powerful feminist demand - the right to safety in public spaces. If this was elite mobilization, what is the problem for the Left with mass mobilizations? It appears that the non-party Left has a deep-rooted fear of the masses, which it can only see as communal and casteist, and politically regressive. Throughout the Anna Hazare phase of the India Against Corruption movement, we saw from this section, which forms our community, strident demands for absolute purity of the radical position (for example, what do these people have to say about Kashmir?). We saw a sort of aggressive selfmarginalization and self-exile to a high ground where all credentials were closely scrutinized, and we saw the absolute incomprehension of and contempt of people who are our friends, for the people when actually confronted by them. Interestingly, political parties of the Left, especially CPI (ML), were supportive of the movement and active in various ways, this sharp criticism came from individuals of the non-Party left. What I saw was a carnivalesque celebration of the pure ideals of democracy of the idea that we the people are sovereign, that politicians are the servants of the people, that laws must originate in the needs and demands of the people. What my community saw though, was a mindless mob of communal and casteist - and even fascist middle classes. For twelve days, a city in which protest had been consigned to a museumized space, Jantar Mantar, was reclaimed for protest by a crashing tide of humanity so huge, so peaceful and non-violent, that it simply took back the city. No violence. No untoward incidents and no hysteria (except on television channels). How is this fascism? Are all large gatherings of the masses fascist? Since many of the critics swear by
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some form of Marxism-Leninism, let me quote from Lenin who said in 1916 of the 1905 revolution: Whoever expects a pure social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution isThe Russian Revolution of 1905 was a bourgeoisdemocratic revolution. It consisted of a series of battles in which all the discontented classes, groups and elements of the population participated. Among these there were masses imbued with the crudest prejudices; there were small groups which accepted Japanese money, there were speculators and adventurers, etc. But objectively, the mass movement was breaking the [back] of Tsarism and paving the way for democracy. Another kind of critic speaks not in the name of revolution, but of democracy; a democracy disciplined through representative institutions with The People entering the stage every five years. The People are a continuous source of anxiety, casteist and communal as all of them are. Little wonder then that this set of Leftist and Left-liberals remained silent when the government denied permission for the protest and arrested Hazare on August 16; some even denying that there had been a violation of civil liberties. Law-making needs to be demystified its a very complex process, the experts on TV kept saying. But what the movement did was it made it legitimate to say that we have a right to the information that will enable us to arrive at a conclusion. I heard a young law student stumblingly explain before a TV camera in English, which was clearly not his first language: They say the Parliament is sovereign. No. They should read the Constitution. The people are sovereign. And I loved the way people said to the camera Main Kapil Sibal se kehna chahta hoon, main Manmohanji ko batana chahti hoon directly, they addressed the leaders, the politicians, as if they have a right to. This is neither anti political nor anti political classes it is the exact opposite. It is the insistence precisely that we the people are political, we demand accountability from those whom we

send to Parliament. It is by now established that there was substantial Muslim and Dalit participation despite their leaders disapproval. The other misrepresentation being continually purveyed is that the supporters of this movement are the middle classes. If the lakhs of people who participated in the protests over twelve days in Delhi alone, are all middle class, then India must be Shining after all! Anybody who moved around where protests were happening could have seen that the large majority of participants were lower middle class to working class people. In Delhi local protests happened everywhere, far away from TV cameras in middle class housing societies, working class unauthorized colonies, around local mosques in poor localities, small temples. We also know from newspaper reports that there was growing participation of workers throughout railway workers affiliated to AITUC; 1800 temporary-for-years Delhi Transport Corporation workers who were sacked for going to Ramlila Maidan; dabbawalas in Mumbai who have not struck work for 140 years; sections of auto drivers; Maruti workers from Manesar in Haryana. The other argument against an anticorruption law is that corruption provides a little shade to the poor. As a skeptic about the law and the state, I have often written about the freedoms made possible by going under the radar of the state. But how to understand the poor and working class who throng the movement? Perhaps corruption is precisely not to be in the shade, to be forced into engaging with the force of Law, but outside the protection of the law. Perhaps the corrupt people protesting corruption would like to live a life in which they wouldnt have to be corrupt just to survive every day? We need to recognize that the term corruption as it plays out in the movement, condenses within it a range of discontents an accumulating anger over repeated betrayals of democratic expectations over years, but especially over the last decade. The immediate trigger of the movement was the series of instances of looting of the public exchequer that came to light recently the Commonwealth Games, the 2G
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Spectrum scam, the Niira Radia tapes that exposed how ministers were being fixed to benefit particular business houses, and so on. But corruption is also an everyday matter for the poor the thelawala paying hafta to the beat constable; the labourer whose muster rolls are faked, the agricultural worker whose NREGA payment is swallowed up; every poor undertrial in jail on trumped up charges (was it surprising then, that the undertrials in Tihar fasted in solidarity with Anna?); the farmer whose land is seized to be passed on to corporates, an issue mentioned by Anna Hazare in his speech at Ramlila Maidan ( kisanon ki zameen zabardasti chheeni ja rahi hai); the aspirant to own an auto rickshaw costing 1 lakh, who ends up paying more than a car costs, and drowns in debt. A young working class boy we know, falsely implicated in a theft case by the police for over four years, rang up at the height of the agitation to tell us jubilantly that the beat constable had told him that the cases were being closed Anna hazare ke chakkar mein pulis saare case khatam kar rahi hai (All this Anna Hazare stuff is going on, so the police are closing all the cases.) We dont know what made him think this had anything to do with Anna Hazare. But this is the Anna moment. This is what the Subaltern Studies historians drew our attention to, the multiple meanings Gandhi had for different sections of people, the rumours of Gandhi that galvanized a variety of protests that directly addressed local issues. But also, maybe the police were scared for an instant? To all those who woke up to the India Against Corruption movement in April 2011 a gentle reminder that this is the crystallization of a long process that began in the villages, initiated by the campaign around the Right to Information. The RTI Act (2005), instrumental in exposing corruption in a range of spaces from NREGA to municipal schools, was the culmination of one phase of the movement; the establishment of an Ombudsman or Lokpal was always planned as the next stage. Corruption is tied fundamentally to the RTI Act that exposes it, so
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effectively that several RTI activists have been murdered. Now of course, Arvind Kejriwal has decided to go the way of a political party, but what we see of the AAP so far, it is clearly not a conventional party with a top-down leadership, and it appears to be genuinely seeking a new way of being a party, with actual mass participation in decision making, which might change the ground rules for all parties. The experience of the mobilizations around IAC were behind the massive protests around the Delhi gangrape. This time, the voices of critique were muted, although a prominent critic was Arundhati Roy, who immediately termed the protests upper class. But again, this was not the case. The protests were sparked off by the rape of a girl on a bus at 9.30 at night. She could have been anybody she was not in a car, or even an auto. Nobody knew her caste later it turned out she is from a very poor family and from the Kurmi caste, which is by no means an upper caste but the point is nobody actually knew who she was she was Everywoman. And again, exactly like the IAC movement, there were right-wing voices as well as left-wing and feminist voices against sexual violence. These feminist thoughts were being articulated by not only people calling themselves feminists but ordinary middle class people who may not consider themselves to be very political at all. There were thousands of submissions to the Justice Verma committee and many of these have been made by ordinary people, residents Welfare Associations and so on, asking for changes in the broader patriarchal context of society things like womens safety and police sensitivity. There has been a ground level shift among people reflecting decades of feminist intervention at different levels, but there is a real disconnect between the people and politicians. Feminist understandings have caught on in the ordinary public but this is not matched by the understanding of state agencies. Not only was a feminist position NOT articulated by anyone in a position of power or any political organization in a consistent way, most politicians from Left to

Right came out with the most misogynist and regressive statements about women and about sexual violence. And again, people did not have to be mobilized by any organized left wing, right wing or feminist groups. The transformation that has taken place in the last 4-5 years is that people feel like they own the city and can come out in protest on the streets and I think this can be tracked back to India Against Corruption. Any mass movement brings together disparate and sometimes starkly contradictory tendencies. Dont we know that from the Indian struggle for independence? Was the Indian bourgeoisie absent from it? Or the religious right of all sorts? Or casteist and Brahminical forces? If absolute purity and a point-to-point matching of our full political agenda is required for us to support a movement, then feminists would be permanently stuck restively in the waiting room of history, for I can assure you that every mass demonstration you see anywhere ever, is packed with patriarchal men and patriarchalized women! Nor does any movement except the womens movement ever raise patriarchy as an issue. But what is it that we take into account when we do support a movement? One does the movement express a goal or demand that we support? Two Does the movement as such explicitly take positions that are antiwomen or anti-anything-we-standfor? (The answers of course, should be yes and no respectively). The huge movement in Goa that succeeded in scrapping the SEZ Bill was composed of precisely such a broad formation from the Church to the Hindu Right, to all of the others of my community as described above. They came together; they went their separate ways once their campaign succeeded. Nandigram saw a similar formation. Many nonparty non-funded citizens forums have too. The Narmada Bachao Andolan is another broad alliance coalescing on a single issue. For that matter, at Tahrir Square there were Islamists (Muslim Brotherhood), and people and groups who stand for fullscale capitalism apart from secularists and feminists and workers and trade unions. Now its a struggle of secularists against the
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Muslim right-wing in Egypt, but that is a historically contingent, not necessary or inevitable development. It is the logic of the development of a mass movement in all its messiness that we should seek to understand, rather than look for that pure, 22carat revolution where everything will proceed according to the programme laid down by the Left elite. From this perspective, nothing less than our maximum agenda is acceptable from SEZs to farmers suicides, from AFSPA in the Northeast to the murder of democracy in Kashmir. If you will not accept even one of these points, youre out - we will have nothing to do with you. It is not they who say if you are not with us you are against us; this arrogant divisive

slogan has always been ours, on the Left. Those issues listed above are our issues too, but what if a mass movement does not raise them? What if it articulates itself around a more generalized and widespread concern? Any student of mass movements anywhere in the world knows that mass movements of this scale only arise around issues where the largest sections of the people feel affected by it. They can never arise around sectional issues however big the sections concerned may be. And the question really is of the potentiality of the movement rather than what it is, at any given point. It will only be inclusive to the extent that it is able to draw in the largest

number. We will of course have to part ways at some point to fight our separate battles, but we can come together for a specific limited goal. We stand at the beginning of a new kind of politics that has all kinds of forces within it, but one of these is certainly the potential to radically transform and rejuvenate democracy. We should be prepared to ride that potential, not undermine it. ( This lecture is based on material from my earlier published work, some of it singly authored, some jointly written with Aditya Nigam, in continuing conversation with whom these ideas have developed.)
*The JP Memorial Lecture organized by the PUCL and delivered at the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi on 23rd March 2013. u

PUCL Press Release: 17.4.2013

Chaining of Santosh Shahani in West Bengal

PUCL is shocked by the chaining of Santosh Shahani, SFI student leader, to the hospital bed in the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Siliguri where he was admitted after his arrest. Such barbaric acts are extremely reprehensible and PUCL condemns this action of the state police and hospital authorities. PUCL is extremely concerned about the repeated incidents of police highhandedness and State apathy in the State of West Bengal. The recently reported statement of Mr. Partha Chatterjee, Industries and Commerce Minister, West Bengal (also Gen. Secy. TMC) alleging that the vandalism last week of the famous Presidency University and the historic Baker Laboratories in Kolkota by flag wielding students belonging to a political party was `staged', as an unacceptable interference with fair investigation into the incidents. If true, it marks a brazen attempt to derail fair, transparent and independent investigation into incidents allegedly perpetrated by the students' wing of the ruling TMC party. As a senior Minister of the State Government the statement of the Minister has the tendency to indicate to the investigating police, the line of investigation desired by the ruling government. This is a total violation of the rule of law and also amounts to a subversion of constitutional governance. PUCL regrets that the State Government, instead of ensuring fair and independent investigation, is indulging in muddying the waters which will end up in obfuscation of facts, derailing investigation and needlessly politicising the issue of lawlessness by political workers caught on camera indulging in hooliganism, vandalism and injuring people. That this is not an isolated incident can be gauged by the intolerance of none less than the CM of West Bengal to anything even remotely critical of her government and governance. The police have been used to brazenly subvert the law by false prosecutions, arrests, intimidation and worse. It needs to be stressed that there is a constitutional duty cast on the police under Article 20 and 21 of the Indian Constitution to conduct fair, unbiased and independent investigation into the custodial death of Sudipta Gupta so that responsibility can be fixed for the tragic death of the young student. Anything less will be in violation of the Constitution. No political party, especially if it is also the ruling party can be allowed to violate the Constitution with impunity. At stake is the primacy of the Constitution and democratic ethos. PUCL expresses concern that in such a vitiated atmosphere and in the light of the concerted attempt by the State Government to derail investigation, fair, transparent and independent investigation into the custodial death of SFI leader, Sudipta Gupta on 2nd April, 2013 in Kolkota may not be possible if done by the state police. PUCL demands that an independent SIT be set up under the direct monitoring of the judiciary so that free, fair and independent investigation is not only done but is also seen to be done. PUCL also demands the immediate unconditional release of all the SFI activists who were arrested and remanded in Siliguri and stringent action against all officials responsible for the chaining of the Santosh Shahani. Prof. Prabhakar Sinha, National President, PUCL; Dr. V. Suresh, National Gen. Secretary, PUCL u
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PUCL Delhi statement: 13th April 2013

Supreme Court Judgment in 'Bhullar' Case too Shocking Review Demanded

The recent judgment of the Supreme Court rejecting the mercy petition of Devender Singh Bhullar is too shocking, particularly to the human rights community, which is very upset. The Court has remarked that human rights activists have failed in their persistent attempt to persuade the Central Govt. to abolish death penalty because "In recent years the crime scenario has changed all over the world" and that "monster of terrorism has spread its tentacles in most of the countries". The Court relied in this context on the case of 'Kartar Singh Vs. State of Punjab (1994) 3 Sec 569' which upheld validity of 'TADA'. However, unfortunately the Court failed to appreciate that in spite of Court's approval of TADA, the Central Govt. had to withdraw it soon after because this law had turned out to be unjust and counter-productive. And Bhullar
NAPM Statement on POSCO Violence:

was convicted under this unjust and lawless law! The remarks of the Court that "It is paradoxical that the people who do not show any mercy or compassion for others plead for mercy" and that "many others join the band wagon to espouse the cause of terrorists involved in gruesome killings and mass murder of innocent civilians and raise the bogey of human rights" are very disturbing. Filing petition U/s 72 of the Constitution by a death convict for reprieve/mercy is a constitutional right which is available to all and there is nothing paradoxical in availing a constitutional right. So far as remark about the 'bogey of human rights' is concerned' one of the reasons for the demand of the human rights activists for abolition of death penalty is about possibility of error in judicial pronouncements. The five judges bench of the Supreme

Court itself, in the matter of 'Kehar Singh Vs. U.O.I: AIR 1989 SC 653' has quoted: "The administration of justice by the Courts is not necessarily always wise". Therefore in such an uncertain situation involving the issue of life and death of a person, the punishment of 'death penalty 'is considered totally undesirable. Such generalized remarks by the Court casting aspersions on the human rights activists are totally uncalled for and unwarranted. Human rights movement in the country has rendered great service to the nation and it is unfortunate that Supreme Court has passed such unpleasant remarks against it. It is hoped that the Court will review its judgment giving relief to Bhullar and expunge un-necessary remarks regarding human-rights activists. N.D. Pancholi, President, PUCL (Delhi) u

State is Sponsoring and Promoting Violence not the PPSS Punish the Criminals, Halt Land Acquisition
New Delhi, March 3: In the continuing saga of state violence and oppression, when nearly 6 platoons of police were present in the area for starting the forceful land acquisition procedure, bombs were hurled at around 6:30 pm on a meeting room of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, at Patna Village, Dhinkia, Jagatsinghpur, killing Manas Jena Age 32 died on the spot. Two others Nabanu Mandal - 35 and Narahari Sahoo - 52 succumbed to their injuries, since police didn't respond to their call for ambulances on time. Mr. Laxman Paramanik was critically injured and is undergoing treatment at the moment. This act of terror is extremely condemnable and will not deter the spirit of resistance. It is also unfortunate that rather than taking action against the company sponsored goons, who have attacked
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in past too, the district administration has been spreading canards that the people died while making bombs. The history of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti shows that the movement has been nonviolent and peaceful even when the the state forces and goons have attacked them with ferocity on many occasions latest being on February 3rd. It need to be mentioned that the movement has faced several instances of state repression, document in a recently release fact finding report titled, "Captive Democracy". The report says that "230 cases had been filed implicating about 1500- 2000 villagers resisting POSCO between 2006 and 2012. Most of the complaints have left the number of accused open-ended, which allows the police to implicate any person in any case, despite not

being specifically named therein. A large number of these cases have been filed by government officials during times of peaceful demonstrations by the members of the PPSS." Shri Abhaya Sahoo, the President of the PPSS was arrested on two occasions and has over 50 cases registered against him, including cases when he wasn't present in the villages on the day of the alleged offence. Manorama Kathua, President Women's Wing of the PPSS, aged about 29 years has several cases filed against her and has been unable to apply for bail due to financial constraints and has not left the village in 6-7 years. These are just few instances of arbitrary actions of the police and the impacts of the same. Hence, it is unfortunate that the state is again trying to criminalise the
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movement and forcefully acquire the land. The sacrifices made by the activists to save their land and right to earn a dignified living must be respected. The actions of Orissa government is in complete violation of democratic norms and principles of justice. As of now the environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on January 31, 2011 stands suspended by the order of National Green Tribunal (NGT) dt March 30, 2012. The project does not even have a memorandum of understanding

with the state government now, with one signed on July 22, 2005 having lapsed. So what is the basis on which the state is acquiring land for the project? The nation needs an answer for this continued brutality and loss of life and livelihood and constant harassment and complete disruption of normal life. People's movements from across the country stand in solidarity with the struggle of villagers of Jagatsinghpur and condemn this barbaric action of the state government and companysponsored goons.

Medha Patkar, Dr. Sunilam, Prafulla Samantra, Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey, P Chennaiah, Ramakrishna Raju, Sister Celia, Suniti S R, Gabriele Dietrich, Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd), Anand Mazgaonkar, Gautam Bandopadhyay, Vimal Bhai, Mukta Srivastava, Suhas Kolhekar, Rajendra Ravi, Bhupender Singh Rawat, Seela Mahapatra, Madhuresh Kumar National Alliance of People's Movements u

Asian Centre for Human Rights Report: 22 March 2013:

Children being Detained, Tortured and Executed in India's Conflict Afflicted Districts
New Delhi: Releasing Nobodys children: Juveniles of Conflict Affected Districts of India, the first ever report on the state of juvenile justice in conflict afflicted districts of India, Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) stated that though a heated debate has been raging at national level with respect to lowering the age of juveniles in the wake of the gruesome rape of a young woman on 16th December 2012 in Delhi, in 197 districts of India officially notified as affected by internal armed conflicts i.e. 91 districts notified as disturbed under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and 106 districts declared as Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected, the edifice of the juvenile justice does not exist. Children, irrespective of their age, are treated as adult and subjected to gross human rights violations including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, extrajudicial executions and sexual assaults as part of the counter-insurgency operations. Juveniles in these districts are denied access to juvenile justice unlike their counterparts in rest of the country. The 197 districts which have been notified as conflict affected include 71 districts notified as disturbed under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir; and 106 districts declared as Left Wing Extremism (LWE)
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affected in nine states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The report highlights 15 cases of arbitrary detention and torture and six cases of detention under the Public Safety Act of Jammu and Kashmir, 15 cases of extrajudicial executions and five cases of sexual assault such as rape by the security forces. In a number of cases of these blatant violations, the National Human Rights Commission has already awarded compensation and the orders of the NHRC establish the truth beyond any reasonable doubt. stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights. 1. State of juvenile justice in conflict afflicted districts In 151 districts out of 197 conflict afflicted districts in 16 States i.e. 76.64% of the total conflict afflicted districts do not have Observation Homes and Special Homes implying that juveniles who are taken into custody are kept in police lock up and camps of the army and paramilitary forces in clear violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 [JJ(C&PC) Act] and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Among these States, the worst are Jammu and Kashmir which has only two Observation Homes, and Manipur which has only one Observation Cum Special Home. This denies access

to justice to many juveniles detained from other districts as they need to be produced before the respective Juvenile Justice Boards (JJB) or courts in the case of Jammu and Kashmir. In conflict afflicted districts, the Juvenile Justice Boards exist on paper while their functioning remains deplorable. The Government of Manipur had submitted false information to the Ministry of Women and Child Development that nine JJBs had been operating in the State while in reality only one JJB was functioning. As the State government failed to establish the JJBs, the Project Approval Board (PAB) in its 35th Meeting under Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) held on 17 January 2012 had no other option but to decide not to sanction further grants for the nine JJBs for the current Financial Year 2012- 2013 until a report on the functioning of JJBs with complete details of members, case pendency, etc are submitted by the State Government. In Jharkhand, there were over 3,500 cases pending before various JJBs in the state as on 11 July 2012 while the Observation Home for Boys established in the LWE affected Palamau district was converted into a girls residential school - Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, and the juveniles were shifted to the Observation Home, Ranchi, which is about 165 km away. This requires travel arrangements to be made for
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the juveniles to come to Palamau district and be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, which invariably delays justice. In Assam, replies received from JJBs under the Right to Information Act showed that not a single review of the pendency of cases before the JJBs has been conducted by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate or Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kokrajhar district; Dibrugarh district; Darrang district; Lakhimpur district; Udalguri district; Dhubri district; Goalpara district; Barpeta district; Golaghat district; Morigaon district; Chirang district; Dhemaji district and Nagaon district from date of their constitution till 30th March 2012. 2. Violations of juveniles rights in conflict affected districts Children in the conflict affected districts are subjected to arbitrary arrest and detention including under the national security laws, torture, extrajudicial executions and sexual violence. In many cases, the perpetrators got away by producing No Objection Certificate or statements obtained under duress from villagers or victims stating that they had not committed any offence. a. Cases of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture In this report, Asian Centre for Human Rights cited 15 cases of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture. Though crimes of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture are difficult to establish, ACHR has been successful to obtain compensation in at least three cases (two of which are highlighted below) to establish the patterns of violence against children. Case 1: Illegal detention and torture of Soumen Mohanty, Orissa On 17 November 2010, Soumen Mohanty (17 years), son of Mr. Sudhir Charan Mohanty of Netaji Nagar was arrested in connection with Madhupatana police station case No. 218 dated 17.11.2010 under Sections 506/34 of Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 & 5 of the Explosive Substances Act in Cuttack, Orissa. On 23 November 2010, ACHR filed a complaint with the NHRC which forwarded it to the Orissa Human Rights Commission (OHRC) for
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taking necessary action. The Police submitted misleading report and this was challenged by the ACHR. Thereafter, the OHRC asked its Director (Investigation) to conduct an independent inquiry and the inquiry report dated 6.11.2012 was submitted. The Director (Investigation) of the OHRC found that (i) Juvenile Soumen Mohanty was taken into detention at Madhupatana police station on 17.11.2010 between 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm and interrogated by the police in connection with Madhupatana Police Station case no. 218 of 2010; (ii) Soumen Mohanty was tortured physically and mentally by ASI Satayanarayan Senapati in presence of Inspector Jayant Kumar Mohapatra and Sub-Inspector, S.B. Jena, (iii) It was ASI Satyanarayan Senapati who assaulted Soumen Mohanty for which he is liable to be prosecuted under sections 341/323 IPC; (iv) Inspector Jayant Kumar Mohapatra is liable for illegal detention of Soumen Mohanty for more than 40 hours under sections 342/341/323/109 IPC; and (v) Police records were manipulated showing that Soumen Mohanty was arrested on 18.11.2010 at 8.30 pm to cover up the illegal action of Inspector Jayant Kumar Mohapatra and ASI Satyanarayan Senapati which amounts to misconduct and dereliction of duty. The Orissa Human Rights Commission also found that when Soumen Mohanty was produced before the CJM-cum-Principal, Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Cuttack on 19.11.2010, the JJB observed as follows: Soumen Mohanty complaints of ill-treatment by police while in custody. He has shown his right hand where marks of assault are visible. Therefore, the OHRC accepted the report of the Director Investigation on 23rd November 2012 and awarded compensation of Rs 50,000 /- (Rupees fifty thousand) to the victim. The Commission directed the authorities to decide about the action to be taken against the erring officials for having assaulted Soumen Mohanty and manipulated the records. Case 2: Illegal detention and torture of a minor, Assam

On 16 August 2009, 12-year-old Dipak Saikia (name changed) of Sanitpur village was tortured by Manuj Boruah, Officer In-Charge at the Sungajan police station in Golaghat district, Assam. On 16 August 2009 at about 11 am, a group of about six police personnel entered the house of the victim and dragged him out without giving any reason. He was taken to the Sungajan police station and on reaching the police station, he was ordered to sit on the floor of the verandah. Mr Manuj Boruah, Officer In-Charge of the police station tied the minors hands on his back with a chain and tortured him. The victim was beaten up with a stick repeatedly on his body including in the thigh, knees, foots, sole, back, arms, elbows and ears. The Officer-In-Charge also asked the minor to keep his hand on his table and was beaten on the nails. He was again hit on the head, neck and nose until Dipak became unconscious. Pursuant to a complaint filed with the NHRC by ACHR, the Superintendent of Police, Golaghat district, vide communication dated 07.12.2010 submitted a report to the NHRC confirming that the accused Sub Inspector Manuj Baruah directed his subordinate police officials to pick up the victim from his home at 10.00 am, caned him and detained him in the police station. The report of the SP further stated that accused police officer willfully omitted to make necessary entries in the General Diary of the police station, pertaining to the whole episode including the picking up of the victim, his illegal detention and subsequent release. The report further stated that a Departmental Disciplinary Proceeding has been drawn up against the accused officer for criminal misconduct and dereliction of duty. The NHRC ordered the state government to provide a compensation of Rs. 50,000 to the victim. On 20 April 2012, the NHRC closed the case after the Joint Secretary to the Government of Assam, Political (A) Department vide communication dated 7.4.2012 informed that payment of compensation amounting to Rs. 50,000/- was paid through cheque to the victim.
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Special focus: Arrests under the Public Safety Act, Jammu and Kashmir Children continue to be arrested under the Public Safety Act (PSA) of Jammu and Kashmir J&K which provides for preventive detention upto two years without trial in the name of public safety. The cases of detention of juveniles in J&K including under the Public Safety Act are given below: Case 1: On 7 February 2011, Faizan Rafeeq Hakeem was arrested for his alleged involvement in stonethrowing. He was 14 years, eight months and 11 days old at the time of his arrest. He was booked under the PSA and shifted to Kotbalwal Jail. Finally, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah ordered his release. Hakeem was released on 5 April 2011. Case 2: In May 2011, Murtaza Manzoor, aged 17 years, was released from jail after the High Court intervened and found his imprisonment to be unlawful. He was locked up for more than three months in administrative detention under the PSA. Case 3: On 17 June 2010, 15-yearold Sheikh Akram, son of Sheikh Zulfikar of Jogilanker Rainawari. Akram and a student of Class 8th was arrested under the Public Safety Act after allegedly attending the funeral procession of Tufail Mattoo. After his arrest, Akram was granted bail by the Principal District and Sessions Court but in order to foil the bail, on 3 July 2010, District Magistrate of Srinagar Meraj Ahmad Kakroo issued orders to book him under PSA and was sent to KotBhalwal jail. Case 4: In November 2010, Harris Rasheed Langoo (15 years), a class 9th student, was arrested from his home at Malik Sahab Hawal for alleged involvement in stone pelting and detained under the PSA. Harris was granted bail twice by the court but continued to be detained. The first bail was granted almost a week after the arrest but police detained him on a new charge. The second bail was granted on 15 November 2010 but he was detained in a new charge. Case 5: Omar Maqbool, aged 13 years, was detained on 27 October
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2010 under the PSA and faced similar trauma of re-arrest like Harris Rasheed Langoo. Case 6: Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, aged 14 years, was detained under PSA without evidence on 9 April 2010. He was granted bail after eight days, but was re-arrested on 21 April 2010. He was finally released on 10 February 2011. b. Cases of extrajudicial killings of children Children are routinely picked up and extrajudicially killed including in alleged fake encounters. In this report, ACHR provided 15 cases of extrajudicial execution of children. In a number of cases, extrajudicial executions have been established by the National Human Rights Commission. Two emblematic cases are given below: Case 1: Killing of Rakhal Gaur (13) by CRPF, Assam On 8 December 2011 morning, Cobra commandoes of the Central Reserve Police Force reportedly shot dead 13year-old Rakhal Gaur at his village, Malasi Namkhi Gaur village under Dolamara police station in Karbi Anglong district of Assam. On 9 December 2011, ACHR filed a complaint with the NHRC urging its immediate and appropriate intervention. NHRC registered the complaint (Case NO.348/3/8/2011PF) and issued notice to Director General, CRPF, New Delhi and Superintendent of Police, Karbi Anglong district, Assam calling for reports within four weeks. The state government of Assam paid a compensation of Rs.300,000 (three lakhs) to the next of kin of the deceased from the Chief Ministers Relief fund and in view of this, the NHRC closed the case. Case 2: Killing of 15-year-old Jatan Reang by Assam Rifles, Assam On the night of 14 May 2010, Jatan Reang (15 years) was killed in firing by the personnel of 14th Assam Rifles and arbitrarily arrested four other tribal villagers at Gudgudi village under Katli Chara Police Station in Hailakandi district, Assam. The five tribal villagers including the deceased (Jatan Reang) were returning from Boirabi bazaar when they were ambushed by the 14th

Assam Rifles from North Tripura over a bridge at Gudgudi village at around 10 PM on 14 May 2010. The 14th Assam Rifles personnel opened fire indiscriminately without any provocation and killed Jatan Reang although they were unarmed and innocent. Following the killing of Jatan Reang, the Assam Rifles personnel arrested the four other Reang tribal villagers and handed them over to Katli Chara police station. On 23 July 2010 ACHR filed a complaint with the NHRC urging its immediate and appropriate intervention. The NHRC registered the complaint as Case No.170/3/21/ 2010-PF/UC and issued notice to the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. During the course of proceeding, the NHRC received the Magisterial Enquiry Report, Investigation Report of the Superintendent of Police, Hailakandi, and the Post-Mortem Report. The reports confirmed that the minor was fired at from point blank range by a jawan and injured his right thigh. But, the minor was not provided medical care and he died on account of excessive bleeding. The NHRC directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to pay a compensation of Rs. 500,000 to the next of kin of the deceased. C. Cases of sexual violence Children especially the girls face sexual violence from the law enforcement personnel in the conflict affected areas. ACHR cites two cases below. Case 1: On 23 February 2011, a 15year-old minor tribal girl was raped by a personnel of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) identified as Tejendra Barui at Nandakumarpara village in Khowai subdivision in West Tripura district, Tripura. The accused was deployed in the Village Committee Election for the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. According to the family members, the accused TSR personnel dragged the victim to a nearby jungle forcefully when she was returning home from her relatives house and raped her. On 25 February 2011, ACHR filed a complaint with the NCPCR which was registered as Case No. TR-19023/21623/2010-11/ COMP. Pursuant to NCPCRs intervention, the District Magistrate
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and Collector, West Tripura district vide letter dated 13 May 2011 informed the NCPCR that a compensation of Rs.40,000 was recommended to two victims under the Tripura Victim Compensation Fund Rules, 2007. On 21 June 2012, ACHR further intervened with the NCPCR to ensure that the compensation is enhanced. Case 2: In April 2011, a 14-year-old mentally challenged girl was raped by a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel near the CRPF camp in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh. The victim was an inmate of a Shelter Home run by an NGO. The matter came to light only when the victim was admitted to a local hospital and gave birth to a premature baby on 5 November 2011. ACHR filed a complaint with the NHRC on 14 November 2011. The NHRC directed the Director General, CRPF, New Delhi and Superintendent of Police, Wrangal district to submit reports. In compliance, the Director General, CRPF submitted a report which stated that during investigation the Caretaker of the Home revealed that a CRPF Constable had raped the girl in the month of April 2011 as a result the victim might have become pregnant. An FIR No. 256/ 2011 dated 29.12.2011 was also registered under Section 376 IPC at Kakatya University Campus police station, Warangal against an unidentified CRPF personnel and Caretaker of the Home. The NHRC vide its proceedings dated 13 April 2012 directed the CRPF to submit a further report regarding the status of action taken. 3. Nobodys children The Government of India denies existence of armed conflicts in India. In its first periodic report (2011) on

the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict states, Even though India does not face armed conflict, there are legislative provisions that prevent involvement of children in armed conflict and provide care and protection to children affected by armed conflict. This statement of the Government of India is not true. The Ministry of Women and Child Development launched Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) from 2009-10 aimed at building a protective environment for children in difficult circumstances. The Jammu and Kashmir government has astoundingly refused to avail the ICPS while the remaining States have not submitted any proposal to augment the juvenile justice system in the conflict affected districts. Under the ICPS, the Ministry of Women and Child Development supports activities proposed by the State Governments which invariably ignore the conflict affected districts. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, among others, at the request of the Asian Centre for Human Rights started a process for drafting Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for dealing with arrest, detention & death in custody and in encounter of children in Internal Security Situations in June 2012 and a consultation was held on 29 July 2012. The NCPCR is yet to finalise the same and a mere statement of the legal procedures is unlikely to help. The UNICEFs Child Protection Programme in India focuses mainly on three areas of intervention: child labour, child trafficking, and children in difficult circumstances. Its website

fails to provide any information as to the work undertaken in the conflict affected districts. It is clear that juveniles in conflict affected districts do not seem to be anybodys priority and they are being denied the equal access to juvenile justice as being provided to their counterparts in the rest of the country. further stated Mr Chakma. 4. Recommendations In its report, Asian Centre for Human Rights recommended to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India and the State Governments must undertake initiative and allocate financial resources to establish all the institutions as provided under the Juveniles Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act in all the 197 conflict affected districts; to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to develop Standard Operating Procedures which shall specify the responsibility to the District Magistrate and the State Police, Central para-military officers and the army to submit the monthly report with respect to implementation of the Juveniles Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act in case of arrest, detention, torture, rape, extrajudicial executions, etc; to the UNICEF to include children from these 197 districts in its programme on children in difficult circumstances; to the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir to issue an order prohibiting arrest of children under Public Safety Act; and to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Women and Child Development for implementation of the Integrated u Child Protection Scheme.

NAPM Press Release on Police Complicity in murder of an anti-corruption crusader: 24.03.2013

Fact finding Team Raises Issue of Police Complicity in the Murder of Crusader against Corruption in Muzaffarpur
A six member fact finding team of the NAPM (National Alliance of People's Movements) today visited Ratnauli village of Muzaffarpur district in Bihar, where Ram Kumar Thakur, a lawyer and RTI activist was shot dead yesterday evening, 23rd March.
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Ram Kumar was returning by cycle from the courts with his nephew early yesterday evening. On reaching Purshottampur village, Jamarua panchayat, at around 4:30 pm they were surrounded by six men who came on two motorcycles. The men

who have been identified by the nephew are Raj Kumar Sahni, Brahmanand Sahni, Parmanand Sahni, Rajesh Kumar Sahni, Mahesh Sahni, Sukhdev Sahni. According to nephew, Sujit Kumar, It was Rajesh Kumar Sahni, the son of the Mukhiya
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who gave instructions to surround them and shoot. Ram Kumar was being rushed to the nearby hospital in a tempo when they were met by the police who transferred ram kumar to a bolero with a missing number plate and told the accompanying people to reach Prashant Hospital, but instead of taking Ram Kumar to Prashant Hospital the police took him to Ma Janaki hospital. Those accompanying Ram Kumar have said that the police caused a delay of two hours as a result of which Ram Kumar was brought dead to the hospital. An FIR stating the above has been filed in Manihari thaana this afternoon. Ram Kumar Thakur had been actively raising the issue of corruption in his village, Ratnauli, for the last few years. He had filed a number of RTI applications on the implementation of the MNREGA and IAY. In a social audit conducted by the Department of Rural Development in September 2011, Ram Kumar Thakur, among others had raised objections to the inclusion of 'ghost' names in the muster roll that were read out during the public hearing. This resulted in an uproar where the Mukhiya and his supporters vociferously opposed these claims as false. The social audit could not be completed because of the disruption which then erupted into a fight where those who had objected to the fudged muster roll were beaten. Ram Kumar Thakur was also beaten by the Mukhiya's men during this incident. After this incident an FIR was filed against the perpetrators by the district administration, however action is yet

to be taken. Most recently Ram Kumar had filed a case with the State Vigilance Commission on the installation of solar lights under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. The case which was filed along with Sundeshwar Sahni of Lok Jagran Manch, an NGO based in Muzaffarpur raised questions on the allocation of money under the project and alleged mis-management of funds by the Mukhiya, Raj Kumar Sahni. The issues raised by them were even investigated by the SubDivisional Officer. The findings of this investigation are not yet available. Following this, in the month of December, Ram Kumar Thakur and his family had received death threats from the Mukhiya's son, Rajesh Sahni. A letter asking for protection was even sent to the DIG of police by Ram Kumar Thakur asking for protection. Over three months since Ram Kumar received threats at his home, over three months since the letter asking for protection was sent to the police, and well over a year since the fight that broke out during the social audit in which he was beaten, Ram Kumar was killed by the perpetrators of previous incidents of violence who were well known to the police and district administration. Had the police and administration taken notice of Ram Kumar's appeal for protection, Ram Kumar Thakur would still be alive. Ram Kumar is succeeded by his wife, two daughters and a son. Based on the facts that have come

to light the NAPM demands that: 1. Those named in the FIR be arrested immediately 2. Speedy trial is undertaken. 3. Immediate compensation of Rs. 20 lakhs be given to the victim's family 4. Police complicity is investigated. 5. A complete investigation into the corruption issues raised by Ram Kumar in Ratnauli Panchayat should be done by the Rural Development Department, Government of Bihar. 6. This is the fifth case of murder of a RTI activist/ whistleblower in Bihar, making a serious note of this the Government should work towards a comprehensive law for the protection of such persons. Ram Kumar was also an associate of the Bihar MNREGA Watch, which has been spear heading an unprecedented mobilization of workers in Ratnauli panchayat, and has in the past years spread to other blocks of Muzaffarpur. Sanjay Sahni and others of Bihar MNREGA Watch have been actively raising their voices for securing entitlements under MNREGA and the national and state pension schemes for close to two years through public meetings, demonstrations and application filing. Members of the NAPM fact finding team included Shahid Kamal (NAPM), Ashish Ranjan (NAPM), Mahendra Yadav (NAPM), Ranjit Paswan (JJSS), Sanjay Sahni (Bihar MNREGA Watch) and Arvind Kumar (JJSS). u

Appeal from Jail: Maruti Suzuki Workers Union, Manesar, Haryana:

Stand in Solidarity with us for Justice

(Reg. No. 1923, IMT Manesar)
We are workers of Maruti Suzuki, who are behind bars since 18.07.2012 as part of a conspiracy, and without any just investigation. 147 of us are inside Gurgaon Central Jail. Since July 2500 permanent and contract workers have been terminated from our jobs. In these past more than 8 months, we have sent our appeal to almost all administrative officials and elected representatives, including Chief Minister Haryana and the Prime Minister of India. But neither have our appeals been heard nor have we been granted bail. The Chargesheet filed by the Haryana police in the Court has no names of any witnesses, and hence is incomplete. This is only a glimpse of the continuous attack on our democratic rights on arbitrary grounds, and we see how law is bent towards siding with company owners. Many of our fellow workers are without parents or guardians, and have been shouldering the entire burden of the household. Many workers wives were pregnant when we were put behind bars. And even when the time of their delivery came, the workers were not granted bail, or even parole custody. 14

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We do not know under what circumstances their deliveries took place. We give a few instances: 1. One of our fellow workers, Sumit s/o Late Shri Chattar Singh, has no one in the family except his wife. Even then, when she gave delivery on 6.12.2012 in a hospital in Gurgaon, the bail plea or parole custody plea of Sumit was rejected. 2. One of our fellow workers, Vijendra s/o Dalel Singh was the lone earning member in his family. His mother stays sick at most times and was not able to accompany or help her daughter-inlaw when she gave her delivery on 10.01.2013 in a hospital in Jhajjhar. Even then, Vijendra was neither granted bail nor let off on parole. 3. In the case of one of our fellow workers, Ramvilas s/o Late Shri Silak Ram, his grandmother, who fell sick after Ramvilas was put behind the bars as he was too affectionate to her, passed away on 26.02.2013. Ramvilas was not even let off on parole to meet his grandmother on her death-bed or to attend the funeral. After few days when it was the time of his wifes delivery, his request for bail or parole custody was turned down. It caused a mental shock to him. 4. One of our fellow workers, Prempal, s/o Shri Chhiddilal, had the responsibility to look after his family alone, as his familys livelihood depended entirely depended on his earnings. When he was thrown into jail arbitrarily, his two years old daughter mourning her fathers absence, fell sick and breathed her last. This wound was yet to heal, when Prempals mother aggrieved by the imprisonment of her son and the death of her granddaughter fell sick and passed away. But even after this, Prempals meager one-week parole leave permission was rejected and he was allowed only a one-hour parole visit on the next day of his grandmothers funeral. His wife, now alone in the house and mourning the death of her daughter and Prempals mother, fell sick and had to be hospitalized. She is still unwell and there is no one to look after her. It has caused terrible mental agony for Prempal. 5. One of our fellow workers, Rahul, s/ o Shri Vinod Ratan, was the only son of his parents, along with a sister. His sister got married on 16.11.2012. But he was not even granted parole custody to attend the ceremony for kanyadan.

The marriage of the sole daughter took place in an environment of sadness, and Rahul is yet to recover from this wound. 6. One of our fellow workers, Subhash, s/o Shri Lal Chand, was very close to his grandmother. After his imprisonment, his grandmother almost stopped taking food and all the time used to think of his grandson, and passed away in grief some days later. But Subhash was not allowed even to attend her funeral on parole custody. These and many other incidents that go on daily in our lives are enough to fill up the pages of an entire book. About ourselves: our identity, family and work We all are children of workers and peasants. Our parents, with huge effort and sacrifice, ensured our 10th standard, 12th standard or ITI education, helped us stand on our feet to do something worthy in our life and help our family in need. We all joined Maruti Suzuki company after passing the written and viva-voce tests conducted by the company and on the terms and conditions set by the company. Before our joining, the company carried out all kinds of investigations, like police verification of our residential proof or whether we had criminal records! Neither of us had any previous criminal record. When we joined the company, the Manesar plant of the company was under construction. At that stage we foreseeing our future with the progress of the plant invested huge energy and diligence to lift the Manesar plant of the company to a new height. When the entire world was struggling under the economic crisis, we worked extra two hours daily to materialize a production of 10.5 lakh cars in a year. We were the sole creators of the increasing profit of the company, and today we are implicated as criminals and murderers, and those who engage in mindless arson! Almost all of us are from poor worker or peasant families which has been dependent on our job. We were struggling to weave dreams for our and our familys future, such as of our own homes, of the better education for our brothers-sisters and children so that they could have a bright future and ensure a comfortable life for their parents who took the pain to bring after them. But in return, we were being exploited inside the company in all possible ways, such as:

1. At work, if any worker was unwell, he was not allowed to go to the dispensary and was forced to continue with the work in that condition. 2. We were not allowed to go to the toilet, the permission was there only at tea or lunch time. 3. Management used to behave with the workers very rudely with abusive language, and used to even slap or make them murga in order to punish them. 4. If a worker was forced to take 3-4 days leave because of his ill health or some accident or other serious problem in his family or because of the death of a relative, then half of his salary which amounted to almost Rs. 9000 used to be deducted by the company. Because of this continuous exploitation, the workers felt the need of forming a Union. Maruti Suzuki company was against the idea of a union, and because of that, three strikes of the workers took place in 2011. After the third strike, thirty fellow workers of ours were forced to resign as they had participated in the strikes. But at last in February 2012 we were successful in registering our Union, in which the then HR Manager, Late Shri Awanish Kumar Dev, helped us. The company was angry with Mr. Dev because of his helpful attitude towards us and as a result, Mr. Dev resigned from the company. But the company did not accept the resignation of him as they were afraid that their misdeeds could get exposed. To crush the union and to remove Mr. Dev from its way, the company with a previously chalked out plan called the bouncers and hooligans in the factory premises on 18th July 2012 and materialized the accident. The present situation of the workers inside the Jail We, 147 workers in total, were thrown behind the bars without any just enquiry, and we are now here for more than 8 months. We are under severe psychological stress inside the jail. Many of us are suffering from diseases like tuberculosis, piles, mental imbalance and several other diseases. Almost all of us were earning members in our family and we are in jail now. Due to this our families are approaching the situation of dying of hunger. The education of the female members of the family and the children have stopped, which are otherwise 15

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their fundamental rights. The future of ours and our families has plunged into darkness. All the members of our families are mentally too disturbed. We are afraid lest they not take any wrong step because of the mental pressure. The present situation of the terminated workers outside the jail Apart from putting 147 workers behind the bars, the company terminated the service of almost 2500 regular and contract workers without any domestic enquiry and these workers are unemployed now. The condition of their families is also very serious. The situation is that they dont have any proof of work experience, their career is doomed and whoever of them comes forward in our support, he is arrested and jailed immediately (the arrest of Imaan Khan, who was a member of Provisional Working

Committee of MSWU and whose name was not there in the FIR, Charge-sheet or SIT report; also the names of 65 workers are under non-bailable arrest warrants). None of the jailed workers or the terminated workers outside have any occupation to sustain the livelihood of people dependent on them and it is putting everyone under mental pressure. Still, against all these odds, the struggle for justice of our fellow workers outside is giving us hope and energy behind the bars. In this struggle that has gone outside the factory in society now for more than 8 months, news of the solidarity that we have received from various parts of the country from workers, toilers and common people has continued to give us hope and enthused our spirits. There is no door of any elected representative that we have not knocked in the space of these 8

months. Weve taken our appeal for justice from the State Industries minister to the Chief Minister, but the government is bent backwards in trying to take side with the company management and owners rather than listen to us workers. We appeal to the government for the last time, that before we are forced into a situation of committing suicide or killing others, we are given justice which is due to us. We hope to have your solidarity and your opinion. Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (The entire Union body of MSWU is behind the bars of Gurgaon Central Jail, where a total of 147 workers continue to languish without any justice, or even bail. This letter of appeal has been sent from there.) Contact: marutiworkerstruggle@gmail.com u

Governors in the dock

They turn a blind eye to laws overriding tribal rights, complains National Commission
Jitendra
Issue Date: Apr 15, 2013 GOVERNORS of states with sizeable tribal population have come in for indictment over not performing their special administrative roles. To ensure partial autonomy in tribal areas, the Constitution entrusts governors with immense powers to supervise the administration and governance in such areas. They can allow or disallow any law or development programme in tribal areas to protect self-governance and development needs. They can also make regulations for harmony and effective governance. But governors are hardly doing so, finds the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. In a confidential report sent to the President, the Commission has recommended that governors be made more accountable in dispensing their special duties in tribal areas notified under Schedule Five of the Constitution, which protects tribal interests. This comes at a time when the government is allocating large development funds for these areas, many of which are reeling from Maoist insurgency. There is a need to evolve a mechanism for the governor in scheduled areas to monitor and
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ensure implementation (of constitutional provisions) in letter and spirit. So that governors may play an oversight role in the matter, states the report sent in June last year and seen by Down To Earth. The Commission, a constitutional body, sends an annual report to the President on the state of affairs in tribal areas notified under Schedule Five. According to sources, the President, who also enjoys special powers in Schedule Five areas, has sent the report to the tribal affairs ministry. It should have been placed in Parliament after a review by the ministry. But the ministry, due to reasons known to it best, did not do so. We did not table it in Parliament due to complex procedures and nonavailability of a Hindi version of the report, A K Dubey, joint secretary of the ministry, says. He does not elaboratecomplex procedures. Since its inception in 2004, the Commission has sent five annual reports to the President. Except for the first one, no report has yet been tabled in Parliament. Review all laws The latest report indicates constant failure of governors in overseeing

developments in Schedule Five areas. The most important responsibility of the governor is to ensure that the special panchayati raj law for tribal areas, known as PESAPanchayat (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Actis implemented effectively and any law that contradicts it is put aside. Through a notification, a governor can annul, restrict or modify state and Centres regulations without seeking the opinion of the Council of Ministers headed by the chief minister. Governors reports rarely mention poor governance, insurgency or displacement However, according to B D Sharma, the last commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, All the laws are automatically applicable until the governor does not want to implement or amend as per the need of the Fifth Schedule areas. As governors fail to perform this duty, general laws have automatically been applicable to tribal areas, often leading to conflicts. The confidential report has recommended a review of all laws for their adaptation in Scheduled Areas. Every year the governor is supposed
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to send a TACs conducted meetings till December 2012. Senior journalist B G Verghese, who has written extensively on the issue, says sarcastically that it is mutely accepted by the Government of India that the governor in the Fifth Schedule, meant to be a governorin-council, is acting on the aid and advice of his council. The confidential report has recommended a review of all laws for their adaptation in Scheduled Areas. Every year the governor is supposed to send a report to the President on the state of affairs and his/her interventions. The commission has suggested that the ministry of tribal affairs should issue a uniform format for preparation and submission of governors report. The format should have a provision for review of Union and state laws and their compatibility with the constitutional provisions safeguarding tribal interests. It should also have a specification for listing steps taken to protect the constitutional rights of tribals. In reviewing laws, governors can consult the Tribes Advisory Councils (TACs) constituted by the states with tribal areas. In the current financial year, four states out of the 11 that have TACs conducted meetings till December 2012. Senior journalist B G Verghese, who has written extensively on the issue, says sarcastically that it is mutely
Coimbatore Press Release: 08.04.2013

accepted by the Government of India that the governor in the Fifth Schedule, meant to be a governorin-council, is acting on the aid and advice of his council. The confidential report has recommended making TACs more accountable. The advisory councils should be reconstituted regularly and meet at least twice a year, says the report. Out of focus Governors role in Schedule Five areas has been under scrutiny ever since the enactment of PESA. It gained urgency in the recent past with large-scale industrialisation triggering conflicts in several tribal areas. Governors are not only irregular in sending annual reports to the President (see map), but also evasive on the subjects these reports are meant to address. R R Prasad, director of the National Institute of Rural Development, has analysed such reports. According to him, none of these reports talks about burning issues like displacement, poor governance and insurgency. The reports are hardly objective assessments as required by the law. Largely, they read like a laundry list of physical targets and financial allocations under various schemes as reported by the state governments department, says Prasad. It is time a more stringent system is put in place so that the

annual report truly reflects the condition of tribes in these areas. There is no proper record of the annual reports submitted to the President. Non-profit Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative sought records on governors reports between 1990 and 2008 through the right-to-information route. But the tribal affairs ministry furnished reports dating from only 2001, citing the reason that the ministry was created in October 1999. This is not the first time governments own wing underscored governors negligence in tribal areas. In 2008 and 2011, during governors meetings in Delhi, the then president requested them to look into their roles in tribal areas more seriously. In April 2012, the Central government for the first time issued a directive to a governor in respect to his constitutional duty in Scheduled Areas. V Kishore Chandra Deo, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj, asked the governor of Andhra Pradesh to cancel the memorandum of understanding signed for bauxite mining in the states Scheduled areas. The governor, however, ignored the directive. The Commissions report has officially raised an issue that has been simmering for some time now. Sent by: Arun Khote , National Movement For Land, Labor & JusticeNMLLJ u

Threat to Tigers, Forests and Forest Dwellers Including Tribals

The Tamilnadu Government notified 1408.405 sq kms (793.493 sq kms Core Area or Critical Tiger Habitat and 614.912 sq kms Buffer Area) of Sathyamangalam Forest Division as the fourth Tiger Reserve of the State on 15 March 2013. Earlier on 13 August 2012 the government notified 1,595.412 sq. kms as the Buffer Area of the three existing Tiger Reserves - Mudumalai, Kalakad-Mundanthurai and Anamalai, more than doubling the area under Tiger Reserves to 3,769.412 sq kms. Now the total area taken over in the name of tiger in Tamilnadu has further increased to 5177.817 sq kms. All these Tiger
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Reserves are notified under Sec.38 V of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 as amended in 2006. These notifications are fast converting these regions into conflict areas between local inhabitants and the forest department. There are also reports of yet another Tiger Reserve in Meghamalai and expansion of existing Tiger Reserves. These notifications have come in for strong condemnations from local people and organizations, political parties, human rights and environmental organizations etc. There have been sustained mass protests. These conflicts are over the

illegalities and blatant violations of Wildlife Protection Act 1972 as amended in 2006 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 by the government, and particularly the Forest Department. A. The violations under the Wildlife Protection Act are that: a. No scientific and objective criteria have been developed to determine the extent of Tiger Reserve resulting in arbitrary demarcation of Tiger Reserves. b. 'The process of recognition and determination of rights' now under the
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Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 has not been initiated and completed [Sec.38V(5)(i)] in any of these areas notified as Tiger Reserves. c. The local inhabitants were not consulted and their 'consent' was not obtained [Sec.38V(5)(ii) and (iii)] d. No consultation were held with 'an ecological and social scientist familiar with the area' [Sec.38V(5)(ii) and (iii)] to determine the area where there are no options for co-existence to be designated as Critical Tiger Habitat (CTH) and where coexistence is possible as buffer area; d. No resettlement programme providing 'livelihood for the affected individuals and communities' [Sec.38V(5)(iv)] was prepared. Instead the government continues to announce the outdated and legally invalid 'Centrally Sponsored Scheme' where the central government would provide Rs.1 lakh now increased to Rs.10 lakh with the rest to be provided by the State government, either as a cash package or a resettlement package. The Tiger Reserves constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act provides for 'livelihood' (not cash compensation) and under the Forest Rights Act 2006 'secure livelihood'. e. No resolution from the Gram Sabhas concerned that recongisiton and vesting of rights in the effected area is complete has been obtained as required under [para 2(a) and 4(vi) of the "Guidelines to notify critical wildlife habitats" issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests on 30.10.2007]. No rights have been recognised till date nor such resolution obtained. Therefore, 'the process of 'acquisition of land or forest rights' 'is complete'

[Sec.38V(5)(i)]. h. The details of the Tiger Conservation Plan for the Tiger Reserves approved by Tiger Conservation Foundation/state government and/or the National Tiger Conservation Authority were not provided to the concerned Gram Sabhas; B. Further, the Tiger Reserve notifications also violates the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006. These are: a. The recognition of rights under the Act in the area intending to be declared as CWH are not only not completed [Sec.4(2(a)] but have been kept on hold even though the Chennai High Court had ordered the implementation of the Forest Rights Act with the issue of titles after obtaining the approval from the Court (in M.P No.1 of 2008 in W.P No.4533 of 2008]. This has also been further clarified to the Tamilnadu government by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India vide its letter of 4 March 2013. b. The government has not established that the continued presence of the inhabitants will threaten the wild life [Sec.4(2(b)]. Therefore government has notified the Tiger Reserves without concluding that there are no other options available such as co-existence except to relocate and resettle them [Sec.4(2(c)], d. No resettlement package providing 'a secure livelihood' (not mere livelihood nor cash compensation) to both individuals and communities were communicated to the affected people [Sec.4(2(d)]; e. The concerned Gram Sabhas did not give their free informed consent in writing to the resettlement package [Sec.4 (2(e)];

All the legally mandated provisions under both the Wildlife Protection Act and the Forest Rights Act have been violated in all the 4 Tiger Reserve notifications. Notably the widespread sustained democratic mass protests in all these Tiger Reserves are against the violations of these laws by the government while the local people are demanding that the government and officials uphold these laws that seeks to protect the tigers, forests and forest dwellers. Therefore, PUCL condemns the blatant violations of the relevant laws by the government and the support given to these violations by a few elitist so-called wildlife and environment NGOs. PUCL supports the democratic and legitimate protests of the local inhabitants in all these 4 Tiger Reserves and demands: Immediate withdrawal of the illegal notifications of all the 4 Tiger Reserves Completion of the implementation of Forest Rights Act 2006 in the State strictly as per the provisions of the law, and particularly in the areas which are now designated as Tiger Reserves Tiger Reserves be reconstituted strictly as per the relevant provisions of Sec.38 V of Wildlife Protection Act and Sec.4(2) of the Forest Rights Act 2006 PUCL also cautions the media to be cautious about the false propaganda to cover up these widespread violations under the guise of protecting the threatened Tigers. The violations of these relevant laws by the government, particularly by the forest department, constitute the biggest threat to tigers, forests and forest dwellers including tribals. S. Balamurugan, General Secretary, PUCL Tamilnadu & Pondicherry u

Press Release: Bangalore: 08 April 2013

World Bank's sham 'Consultation' to Review Its Environmental and Social Safeguards Shut Down in Bangalore
About 25 activist representatives, researchers, environmental specialists, policy analysts, lawyers and health professionals from a wide range of social and environmental action groups, peoples networks and movements of Karnataka, forced the closure of The World Banks consultation on the review of its environmental and social safeguards in Bangalore today (08/04/2013). The consultation was slammed as a complete sham which must be denounced by anyone genuinely concerned about the nature of 18

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democracy and broad based public interest, and committed to the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), climate justice, sustainable development through democratic decision making and the Principle of Intergenerational Equity. Moreover it was made into an occasion to denounce the various projects that have destroyed the environment and various communities, and to demand the World Bank to quit India. Stephen F. Lintner, Senior Advisor, Operational Policy and Client Services of The World Bank had flown in from Washington DC (USA) to hold the consultation at Hotel Atria in Bangalore, along with Preeti Kudesia, Senior Operations Officer of the Bank. The meeting was supposed to have been facilitated by Anubrotto Kumar (Dunu) Roy, Honorary Director of Hazards Centre, New Delhi. Of those invited by the Bank, about 5 represented various civil society and research organisations, and a dozen or so officials represented various agencies of the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments. The consultation was held barely a stones throw from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, and yet, shockingly, not one Parliamentarian, Legislator, Municipal Councillor or Panchayat member from anywhere had been invited. This amply demonstrated what a mockery of democracy the exercise was. The invited gathering of about 20 odd representatives of civil society organisations and Governments of various Central and Southern States of India were probably invited by the Bank to accord a certain legitimacy to the review exercise. Were it not for the intervention of progressive social and environmental action activists, this charade of consulting the public would probably have been passed of as a successful process, and the exercise possibly used to legitimise the weak safeguards of the Bank. Clifton D Rozario of the Alternative Law Forum read out a detailed statement (attached) which strongly critiqued the World Banks consultation process and also its investment policies. He attacked the Banks double-speak on claiming belief in democratic decision making, when, in fact, all it does is talk to an elite section of society and claim such opinion gathering held in classy

hotels as peoples sanction to the Banks investment policies. He also reminded the World Bank of its responsibility in regard to the devastation heaped on the lakhs of adivasis and farmers in the Narmada Valley due to Sardar Sarovar dam, which it fails to own up to even today. He also decried the so-called knowledge production by the World Bank as methods to monetise and commodify all resources and even relationships. Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group criticised the flawed process of the Banks consultation mechanisms and said it amounted to ritualising the FPIC Principle. He demanded that the Bank cancel the charade being passed of as a consultation as it was against the jurisprudence that had evolved in India which required deep application of FPIC Principle in decision-making. The current process seriously compromised peoples right to know and participate in decisions that affect them and exposed the Banks vacuous claim of being a change maker in developing progressive environmental and social safeguards. Kshitij Urs of Action Aid slammed the Bank for being satisfied by this charade of a consultation held amongst selected stakeholders that especially excluded elected representatives. He said the Bank had over the decades succeeded in creating a perception of being progressive, when in fact it had structurally damaged national economies and devastated communities everywhere it lent. The Banks interests were too strongly aligned with imperialist designs of the US and other Northern economies and this was seriously compromising Indias sovereign power to decide its developmental process. Quoting Obama, he said, Enough is Enough, and asked the World Bank to please leave. Speaking on behalf of the Janaarogya Andolana Karnataka (JAAK) Akhila Vasan said the World Banks policies have fragmented and progressively weakened the public health system through introduction of various forms of contractual arrangements. Under the influence of the Banks universality policies, Karnataka is aggressively pushing numerous insurance

schemes and managed care models that are leaving people to the mercy of the exploitative, predatory private health sector, and resulting in further impoverishment and destitution. User fee, introduced by the Banks investment policies, is blatantly antipoor, and an unscientific policy that has its roots in the larger structural adjustment process initiated by the World Bank. She accused the Bank of arm-twisting governments into pursuing several privatization models, including Public Private Partnerships, which enabled Corporate/for profit agencies to enter the health care market in various ways with disastrous consequences on livelihoods and survival of several communities. Madhu Bhushan of Vimochana in an impassioned intervention said the World Banks policies and lending patterns have deeply affected the lives of women in India and particularly the poor women. As a Bank it can only perceive every relationship as an economic transaction women are commodified and reduced to being consumers and led towards greater indebtedness. New vulnerabilities have resulted as a consequence, she said, which not only increased violence in private and public spaces but also greater social and economic violence. The classic example of this is the microfinance project of the Bank supposedly initiated as a means to increase self-reliance and reduce the dependence on exploitative local money lenders amongst rural and poor women. The number of documented cases of suicides of women who are unable to repay has dramatically increased wherever the Bank promoted self-help group loans, and caused divisiveness within rural communities, Bhushan said. If this is not an agenda of Genocide, what is? she enquired. Reacting strongly to Lintners intervention that these facts would be taken on record, she asked him to stop patronising by offering to take concerns on record, thus reducing people to mere footnotes in a Bank document. Vinay Sreenivasa of Alternative Law Forum perturbed by the Bank holding the consultation in Bangalore when no effort whatsoever was made to communicate in local languages demanded the consultation must 19

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013

Postal Regn. No.: DL-(E)-01/5151/2012-2014 Posting : 1-2 of same month at New Delhi PSO
immediately be abandoned and the process revisited only after all the policies were translated to local languages and effectively disseminated publicly. He pointed out not one of the Banks officials knew any of the languages spoken in the region, and yet the institution had the gaul to hold a consultation in South India claiming it was an opportunity for local people to engage with proposed revisions of the critical environmental and social safeguards. Rajendra Prabhakar of the Campaign Against Water Privatisation attacked the Bank as an agent of neo-liberal colonisation. The so-called development programmes of the Bank were undermining democracy as it created debt traps, that attacked the very idea of sovereignty, citizenship and genuine progress of people, he said. Bhoga Nanjunda of CIEDS Collective joined issue and said the Bank was not in India to promote genuine peoples development, but to pursue its business of lending. He asserted that India is a not a market for promoting the World Banks business. Bhargavi Rao of Environment Support Group presented a nuanced analysis of the careless disregard the World Bank cultivated for its own environmental and social standards. She attacked the International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, of massively financing the expansion of the West Coast Paper Mills in Dandeli (North Karnataka) even after it had been officially informed that the company had for decades violated all environmental norms and discharged its waste into the Kali river devastating its ecology and the lives of downstream communities. Bolstered by the Banks lending and promotion of industrial farming practices, the company was now colonising local forests with pulpwood plantations on the dubious claim they were degraded. Similarly, Nitin Rai of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) presented his experience of the World Banks Global Environmental Facility funded EcoDevelopment Project implemented by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests, which he said was done without any adherence to the Banks social and environmental safeguards. He expressed his deep shock and dismay that the World Bank had chosen to hold a consultation in such an intransparent manner. Arati Choksi of Peoples Union of Civil Liberties attacked the World Banks pro-poor policies as reeking of a plan to make profit out of the poverty alleviation programmes. What is particularly worrisome, she said, is the insidious and coercive manner of World Bank in implementing the ten point agenda of the Washington Consensus, of not just fiscal profit, but placing its own partner stake holders firmly in control of all public sector enterprise and resources - water, energy, transport, health, and education for continual and perpetual financial extraction. Despite repeatedly being urged to speak, not one of the officials representing various Government agencies chose to spoke. Mr. S. M. Jamdar, a senior bureaucrat of the Karnataka Government who recently retired, also did not speak. He, however, spoke to media persons where he is reported to have said that he shared all the concerns being aired, and said it is critical that these messages reached senior politicians and bureaucrats of the Government who were complicit in perpetuating such systemic problems. In the face of such informed criticism of its actions, policies and consultation procedures, Stephen Lintner decided finally that the consultation had ended without any adherence to the Agenda the World Bank had proposed. The organisations that participated were Peoples Union for Civil Liberties Karnataka, Environment Support Group, Alternative Law Forum, Peoples Campaign against Water Privatisation, Janaarogya Andolana Karnataka, Vimochana, CIEDS Collective, CIVIC Bangalore and various others in their individual capacity. u

RNI No.: 39352/82 Date of Pub.: May 1, 2013 Regd. Office : 270-A, Patparganj Opp. Anandlok Apartments Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi-110091 Tel.: 22750014 Fax:(PP) 42151459 E-mail : puclnat@gmail.com puclnat@yahoo.com Website : www.pucl.org PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

Founder : Jaya Prakash Narayan President : Prabhakar Sinha General Secretary : V. Suresh Treasurer : Ritu Priya (Ms) Vice Presidents : Binayak Sen; P.B.DSa, Ravi Kiran Jain; Sanjay Parikh Secretaries: Chittaranjan Singh; Kavita Srivastava, Mahi Pal Singh.
PUCL BULLETIN Chief Editor : V. Suresh Editor : Mahi Pal Singh Editorial Board : Rajni Kothari, Rajindar Sachar, R.M. Pal Chief Editor, Editor. Assistance : Babita Garg

Printed and Published by: Pushkar Raj, General Secretary, PUCL, 270-A, Patparganj, Opp. Anandlok Apartments, Mayur Vihar-I, Delhi-110091 for People's Union for Civil Liberties Printed at: Dixit Printers, 108, Basement Patparganj Indl. Area, Delhi-110092

PUCL BULLETIN, MAY 2013

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